It’s been hard to miss the Jason Aldean Try That In A Small Town kerfuffle.
The memes.
The sanctimonious bleating from the right about how he’s being unfairly targeted.
The explosion of outerwear saying “I Stand With Jason Aldean”.
My gawd people, do you have nothing better to do?
While there has been pushback, it does not seem to be matching in ferociousness.
So I am brining to all of you the perspective of a real small town person — Reed Anfinson, editor of the Swift County Monitor-News, in Benson, Minnesota, population 3379 — which one would think should qualify as small.
Anfinson has some thoughts on the whole deal, and they take aim at Aldean and all those who are making his homage to small towns something to be proud of.
Spoiler alert — it’s most definitely not.
While Aldean’s lyrics may seem flattering to small towns, they do the opposite. They do damage to our efforts to be welcoming communities. The song doesn’t inspire, it divides. It doesn’t promote small towns, it stereotypes and diminishes them.
Portraying small towns as “Full of good ol’ boys, raised up right” ignores the fact that our rural courts have their share of these “boys” charged with a wide variety of crimes. There are plenty of these “boys’ who show little respect for law enforcement, their neighbors, or their community. Those “gold ol’ boys” can be seen as a group of white males filled with prejudices and ready to run those out of town who disagree with them.
Read the entire editorial here.
And feel free to share it, especially with those who think Aldean is the next great thing….or whatever...